Best pick-up truck/5 car trailer combination?

First, where are you located and where are you planning on running?

Second, a 3 car can make plenty of money, it's not the amount of cars you haul its the $$ you make on the cars you haul.

 

Ive seen someone pull a goose neck trailer with a car. Do you think thats smart? But YES, them idiots you see pulling a 5 car with a dually are idiots. I notice it more and more these days. Monkey see, monkey do.

 

When I used to run a 3 car with my F-350, it pulled just fine, but stopping SUCKED. I used to absolutely DREAD going over the Grapevine. Scared I was gonna blow the tranny going up, and the brakes going down. It wasn't until I installed an exhaust brake on the 7.3 that I stopped getting heart palpitations going down that #### hill grossing only 30k.

When I got my used class 8 tractor, I never worried again. Better brakes, tires, tons more power, better sleeping arrangements than a dually, and I no longer worry about any hill. I now run a 7 car, and still have no worries. I will NEVER go back to a dually, 1 ton or better. A 1 ton has it's place in the world, but it's DEFINITELY not infront of a 5 car trailer.

Before you buy a truck please think about the safety of others on the road and not your profit margin- because when you DO rear end a minivan full of kids because you are way overweight, you can kiss your profit, and your family time goodbye. Do it right or don't do it at all......

 

Yeah, the 2014 Dodge 3500 is rated for 30k towing, but only 14k GVWR. I'm pretty sure the front axle is right about 4-4500, and the rear axle is about 4000 as well, plus all other crap you carry gives you a 1 ton weighing at least 8500 lbs. That leaves you 5500lbs of extra capacity. HOWEVER, while 4 18" dually tires are rated over 12,000, what's the rear axle rated at? Yeah, I've run my 350 Dana 80 axle at 9500 lbs before when Ford only rates it at 8500 (Dana rates it at 11k) but if you get in a wreck the lawyers will find that little crack in your run and dig until they can get you for something. So unless you can keep your RAWR in check it doesn't matter how much you can haul.

 

You also have to remember the weight of the trailer also. Lots of people overlook that fact also. If you have a trailer with a gvwr of say 24k, that means that is the max you can have on the axles of the trailer and includes the trailer weight.

Thank you for finally hearing what everyone was saying.

Now we can move on.

IF it were me, I would look into a 2 ton truck and a 44 foot gooseneck flatbed from PJ trailers. This is what we use with our 5500 dodge. With that you can carry over 22k in cargo. At least with our truck as we have a huge flatbed, slip tank and 4 toolboxes mounted on the truck. The more junk you carry the less you can haul.

The reason that I say flatbed is because of the diversity. You can still get three cars on there or 2 pickups but you can also haul a load of anything else where the wedge is limited to vehicles/trailers. LTL flatbed loads, tractors or even a small grader (we did it).

 

Yes he is hard headed. He never scaled any thing . Thinking he was above everything , one he had one the tail was half his rated towing limit , add in the other 3 and the trailer , he was over. . Lots of headaches . That one truck should never been any where near that trailer, but he was chasing its rate . And his over weight , was over axle on his 7 car (which is allowed 34000 lb instead of 21000 or 24000 depending on brand) . Your weight will climb fast. We want you to do as well as you can in you new business .

 

Yeah a flatbed "can" work, but how often do you see a car on a flatbed with no other freight? More often than you should.... I've put occasional freight on my wedge, but NEVER had a problem putting 3 cars on whenever I wanted to.